


we were explorers

by spookykingdomstarlight



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Light Angst, M/M, Post-Star Wars: Return of the Jedi, Pre-Star Wars: The Force Awakens
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-27
Updated: 2017-11-27
Packaged: 2019-02-07 04:13:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,211
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12833049
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/spookykingdomstarlight/pseuds/spookykingdomstarlight
Summary: His bravery was of a circumspect kind. Or a cavalier kind. He’d walked into Imperial strongholds and charmed his way into rooms full of priceless antiquities and came away with riches beyond the telling of it. He’d been sent to prisons and work camps and worse and came out of all of them unscathed. No cage could hold him but the cage of the mind.





	we were explorers

**Author's Note:**

  * For [](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts).



It started with an introduction, the way all things tended to. One day, he was going about his business collecting the detritus of civilization that the Empire would rather suck up and send to a trash compactor. The next, Luke Skywalker arrived with a kindly, unassuming smile and a request. _I’m told you know something about Jedi artifacts_ , he said, his eyes roving over the hovel he’d set up for himself. Jakku wasn’t the friendliest of places, but he’d heard tales of caches that dotted the desert, the finest pieces in the Emperor’s collection left for the taking.

And Lor San Tekka, for all of his flaws and foibles, was happy to take, especially that which did not belong to the Emperor.

“I might,” he replied, allowing himself a twinkle that had been known to smooth the way through all sorts of troubles in his life. Luke Skywalker, young and blond and so painfully earnest a Force-null like Lor could sense it, was a handsome man. And if Lor had one weakness that didn’t include snubbing his nose at the Empire, it was that. “What is a man such as yourself doing looking for Jedi artifacts? That’s dangerous even in these days of freedom.”

He smiled, enigmatic, mysterious despite his openness.

With a wave of his gloved hand, he changed everything.

Lor could never love a man more for that.

He could never forgive a man that, either.

*

They met rarely and each time it left Lor aching for more from the man he now called friend—and more.

He didn’t know how Luke felt about the old tenets. They never discussed them and Luke never seemed interested in pestering him for more. Even now, most people who knew anything about the Jedi focused on their laws concerning love, attachment, intimacy. It was like none of those things mattered to him. Or perhaps they mattered so much, he couldn’t bring himself to ask for clarification. Or maybe it was none of those things and Lor was reaching. It had been known to happen from time to time.

And yet he could not ask.

His bravery was of a circumspect kind. Or a cavalier kind. He’d walked into Imperial strongholds and charmed his way into rooms full of priceless antiquities and came away with riches beyond the telling of it. He’d been sent to prisons and work camps and worse and came out of all of them unscathed. No cage could hold him but the cage of the mind.

And his mind was certainly caged on this point.

“What brings you to my humble chateau today, my friend?” he asked, unconcerned grin firmly pasted into place, as Luke trudged up the meadow path that led to his front door. This was one of the nicer homes he’d procured over the years. “Did a little bird inform you about the cave system just a mile west of here that may in fact hold a stash of Jedi holocrons?”

 _If the little bird is named Lor San Tekka_ , he replied, shoving his pack higher on his shoulder. _Do birds know how to spelunk, I wonder?_

When Lor grinned at him, Luke grinned back.

Lor might have been that little bird, but if it brought Luke here, he would gladly fess up. “You got me,” he said. “Why don’t I show you why you’re here? I promise it’ll be worth your while.”

_It always is._

*

_The Jedi Code is a disgrace_ , Luke said, out of nowhere. He’d only been paging through an old paper document, a scroll carefully preserved. Lor still meant to copy it, to ensure that even if the physical copy was destroyed, its contents would not be lost. But he’d wanted Luke to see it first, to be the first to understand its wisdoms. _Sometimes I think the Jedi didn’t know what the hell they were doing_.

“Then they weren’t so different from the rest of us,” Lor pointed out. He wanted to argue, to defend. The Jedi were a great force for good in the galaxy.

But they’d also, if he was being honest, shot themselves in the foot on so many occasions as to make it almost comedic in its tragedy that they were brought so low when and how they were.

Luke frowned, lips thinning with his perturbation. And perhaps Lor couldn’t blame him. He didn’t yet know what was in this particular piece of Jedi dogma, but it obviously bothered him. His fingers tapped at the table he sat at and his cheeks were pinker than normal. A rare annoyance flashed in his eyes and his mechanical hand tightened and creaked inside of its leather glove. Finally, after a long moment, he sighed, anger broken upon the shore of his better nature. His palm brushed across his face. _They’re wrong. Not about everything. But—some of it…_

“Then they’re definitely not so different from the rest of us.” Lor never would have thought he’d say anything of the kind, but the Force was with Luke Skywalker. He saw it as clearly as he saw anything. His instincts were pure, his beliefs well-founded. “Perhaps it’s not your destiny to rebuild the Jedi as they were.”

_What do you mean?_

“You can build something new.” This felt right. With Luke looking at him like he was a wonder, a benediction, he knew that much. “You can build something better.”

*

Luke didn’t call his school a temple, but Lor thought of it as one all the same. It could be nothing else in Lor’s mind. “You certainly picked a challenging place,” Lor said. It was the kindest thing he could think. Rocks dotted the area around it, large and ragged-edged. And the rain—it was a bit much. But Luke was smiling despite the water that soaked into his wool robes and trickled down his face. For him, all was right in the world.

 _They’re lucky I didn’t choose Dagobah,_ he answered.

As he turned toward Lor, Lor said, “I’m lucky you didn’t choose Dagobah.” He stamped his feet against the ground. The mud sucked at his boots. “This is quite close enough to it for my tastes.”

_You approve?_

Luke always did know him and could guess what he would say. Still, Lor said it. “I do.”

And with that, Luke did the unexpected.

Luke kissed him and said:

 _I couldn’t have done this without you_.

If all of Lor’s life had been working toward this moment, it would have been worth it for this alone.

*

The Temple was in ruins and as far as Lor knew, Luke Skywalker had died in the conflagration. He couldn’t see a way Luke could have survived. Hate, anger, betrayal. They all clung to this place in a miasma of fear and doubt. Smoke still drifted in lazy, twining ribbons toward the gray-clouded sky. If Lor allowed himself to, he was certain he could still smell the char of—things he did not particularly want to think about.

Unbidden tears fell from his eyes.

All he knew, in that moment, was that he would take it all back if he could.

Luke couldn’t have done this without Lor, after all.

He wished he’d never met Luke Skywalker, if this was what that meeting wrought.


End file.
